Raised from the Deathbed

David Berg's testimonial of healing by the Power of the Name of Jesus Christ while in the US Army during WW2

--by David Brandt Berg, taken from ML#1253, written July 22, 1982

I have been healed by the Power of the Name of Jesus Christ! I was dying in an Army hospital of double pneumonia and heart trouble and God miraculously supernaturally healed me almost instantly after three days of hovering at the threshold of death with a temperature of 106 degrees Fahrenheit, double pneumonia and heart so leaky and with such loud murmurs the doctors said they didn't believe I could possibly live very long even if I hadn't had double pneumonia!

AFTER THREE DAYS OF LYING AT DEATH'S DOOR I finally told the Lord in my semi-conscious almost comatose state that I was sorry I had displeased Him and backslidden and gone back on His work and His Word and gone into the Worldly military to satisfy my curiosity about the World and wanting my independence from my mother (Virginia Brandt Berg, a famous Evangelist at the time) and her ministry and my ties to mother's apron strings, so to speak. I certainly repented of it once I was on the Devil's territory in the Army with some of the wickedest men I had ever known!

I WAS REALLY SORRY and IT SEEMED TOO LATE, and WITHIN A FEW MONTHS I LANDED IN THE ARMY HOSPITAL WITH DOUBLE PNEUMONIA--having come up from Florida where we were sunning ourselves on the Tropical beaches and swimming in the warm water--to Fort Belvoir, Virginia, outside of Washington, D.C., the home of the U.S. Army Engineers, and there standing in knee-deep snow for hours at a time during lectures on U.S. Army Engineering equipment etc. and tromping for miles through the mud and snow on long hikes and the freezing cold, sub-zero weather, the little Tropical bird that I was, Florida boy, I came down with double pneumonia.

FIRST I FROZE BOTH ACHILLES TENDONS IN MY HEELS, and as though that wasn't enough, I finally wound up in Sick Bay with a temperature of 106 just thinking I had the flu, and it turned out to be double pneumonia, coughing up blood and unconscious most of the time so that the doctors were sure that I was going to die!--In fact, so sure that they telegraphed my mother to come if she wanted to see me while I was still alive, that I was dying there in the Army hospital!

BUT I THANK GOD THAT JUST BEFORE SHE CAME--IN MY ALMOST SUBCONSCIOUS STATE, HALFWAY BETWEEN ONE WORLD and ANOTHER--I HAD DONE MY REPENTING and asked the Lord to forgive me. I told the Lord that I would serve Him for the rest of my life if He would raise me up and heal me, but that if I'd gone too far and He was through with me, I still loved Him and I was ready to go; but that if He could forgive me and heal me and raise me up I would give that life that He gave me back again to Him.

AND THE MOMENT I MADE THAT DECISION I WAS VIRTUALLY INSTANTLY HEALED and came back to consciousness, hungry, asking the nurse for something to eat! I told her I had to get up and go to the toilet, when up to this time I had not even been moved out of the bed and had been fed intravenously etc.

THE NURSE GOT ALL EXCITED and RAN TO GET THE DOCTOR who came back and checked me out, pulse and temperature and various things. He said, "Well, we thought you were dying, but it looks like you're all right now, you're going to be OK! Pulse OK, temperature normal and you say you're hungry!" And I said, "Yes, I sure am! I'm tired of this needle in my arm with intravenous feeding!" He said, "OK, nurse! Start him out on a soft diet, give him something to eat."

I THINK THEY BROUGHT ME SOMETHING LIKE MASHED POTATOES OR GRITS or some various soft foods like that and I was so hungry I gobbled them down and immediately I wanted to get up and go to the bathroom. "Oh, no, no, no!" she said, "You can't get out of bed, you've been too sick, too weak!" I said, "Listen, get out of my way, I'm going to the toilet!"

They had given me a private room because they thought I was dying and I guess they didn't want me to die in the presence of the other men in our ward as it would be a little discouraging to others who were sick.

SO I WENT TO THE BATHROOM and SHE INSISTED I CLIMB BACK IN BED, so I climbed back in bed and she gave me a tray of food and I gobbled it up and I was very happy and back on my feet the next day. Within just a couple of days they saw that I no longer needed a private room and so much nursing and service--whereas I had a nurse sitting in my room all the time because they thought I was dying--so they moved me out to the public ward where a couple of dozen other fellows were occupying beds and I was just feeling fine.

I SPENT VERY little TIME IN BED AFTER THAT EXCEPT AT NIGHT, spending a good deal of my time walking around the hospital visiting others, talking to them about the Lord and encouraging them or reading books and my Bible and getting stronger and healthier and fatter and sassier every day!--So much so the doctors could hardly believe what had happened!

I REMEMBER THE COLONEL USED TO BRING BY ANY VISITING DOCTORS and come to the foot of my bed or where I was and point me out and say, "Now this boy was the sickest one we had. He had double pneumonia, temperature of 106, three days in coma and heart trouble and then just suddenly he snapped out of it and we just don't know which of the medicines it was that we gave him, whether it was one of the antibiotics or sulpha drugs"--or the new wonder drugs that they had in those days of WWII--"so we just don't know which one did it!"

AND I WOULD JUST GRIN and POINT STRAIGHT UP and either just hint that it was God or say it right out: "Well, it was an answer to prayer, my mother's prayers and mine." Some of the doctors would smile and seemed to be pleased, others would scowl and look skeptical, but I was the wonder boy of the ward, having nearly died and suddenly snapped out of it. It was a miracle and amazing to them!

EVEN THEN WHEN THEY FINALLY SENT ME HOME A COUPLE OF MONTHS LATER they said my heart was so bad, murmured so loud, leaked like a sieve and that I might not even live a year. They told my mother she'd have to keep me in bed and that if she'd keep me in bed full-time that I might live a year. I'm sure that if I had gone to bed that's all I would have lived at that, because I promised the Lord that if He would raise me up I would give the life that He gave me back again to Him and His service--which I did and have ever since, thank the Lord!

THAT'S BEEN ABOUT 40 YEARS AGO NOW, thank the Lord, and I'VE FELT BETTER EVER SINCE! In fact, I think I'm healthier today than I ever was in my whole life, despite a few little set backs once in awhile due to my own follies and abuses or carelessness in overdoing etc. But most of the time I'm stronger than I ever was in my whole life, my heart is stronger and I feel better and I enjoy life more and I'm just doing great, which is pretty good for a man of my age (63 then), thank the Lord!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family

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